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Laser Printers are More Economical than Inkjet Printers

Posted by
on
July 31, 2015

Several
days ago as I was printing out text documents, the dreaded “Low Ink”
indicator flashed before my eyes. It indicated that the black ink
cartridge needed replacing…again!!! I felt like I had just replaced it!
It was only 3 months ago that I spent over $50.00 to replace the ink
jet cartridges for my inkjet printer; three months before that I spent
another $50.00. All in all I spent over $100.00 in 6 months on ink jet
cartridges! I thought to myself …this is ridiculous…enough is enough!
There has to be a more economical way to meet my printing needs. After
all, I am just using my ink jet printer at home to print out text
documents and sometimes a colored photograph. It shouldn’t be this
pricey. So, I started doing research on which type of printer would
give me the best bang for my buck.

First and foremost, refurbished printers are the way to go! According to Webopedia, the definition of refurbishedrefers
to "old" or used computer equipment that has been restored to like-new
working condition and/or appearance or computer devices that have been
sent back to the factory to fix a flaw. After
learning about “refurbs”, I liked the idea of having electronic devices
sent back to the factory for a second inspection and a “rebirth”. In
addition, purchasing a “refurb” protects the environment because
manufacturing new printers produces more carbon, consumes raw materials,
and expends significant labor energy.

With
that said, a refurbished HP Officejet Pro K5400tn Color Inkjet Printer
costs about $124.00 according Google Shopping. It produces documents at
speeds of up to 10 pages per minute (ppm) color, and up to 12 ppm
black. HP.com sells its black ink cartridge (OEM/original ink
cartridges) for $23.99, and the yellow, magenta, and cyan cartridges
costs about $15.99 each. If you are using the K5400tn daily for home
use such as printing text docs and pictures, after printing about 850
pages using the black inkjet cartridge and about 625 pages for each of
the separate color inkjet cartridge, you will have to drop approximately
$72.00 to replace all ink cartridges.

According
to Google Shopping, a refurbished HP Laserjet 1320 laser printer (base
model) sells for about $137.00 and prints up to 22 ppm. A toner
cartridge for the HP Laserjet 1320 which is the q5949a costs about
$68.99 and yields up to 2500 pages.

Of the two products, the HP Laserjet 1320 laser printer, gives you more bang for your buck.The
HP Officejet Pro K5400tn Color Inkjet Printer costs $13.00 less (for
the initial printer) and prints in color; however, the ink cartridges
print significantly less pages (850 black pgs and 625 colored pgs
compared to 2500 black pgs from the HP Laserjet 1320) before having to
purchase new cartridges. Basically, the HP Laserjet 1320 will print
about 3 times more black and white text documents than the HP Officejet
Pro K5400tn with one black cartridge. So, if you were only printing in
black with the inkjet printer, you would have to replace your black ink
cartridge 3 times spending about $72.00 ($23.99 x 3) in order to print
2500 pages; whereas with the HP Laserjet, one toner cartridge yields
2500 pages, and you would only have to spend $68.99. In addition, the
HP Laserjet 1320 helps you save more money since you wouldn’t have to
make 3 trips to Office Max or pay 3 times for shipping. My next printer purchase was a no brainer…the LASER PRINTER wins!!! It should be your winner too!